Artist: Ichors Glaive
Country: USA
Label: Medieval Prophecy Records /Blud Auk Tapes
Formats: 12” Demo / Demo tape
Year: 2024
Medieval Propehcy Records is certainly a label that has the spotlights of the underground Black Metal community honed in on them. And that is exactly how the band Ichors Glaive came to my attention as well. In early 2025 the Americans made their debut appearance on the label with the vinyl release of their demo ‘Solstice of an Ancient God’. Technically however, the recording dates back to 2024, where it was already released on tape by Blud Auk Tapes.
The people behind Ichors Glaive are Azeruel Woldaeg and Collier d’Ombre, who together have collected an extensive resume in bands such as Collier d’Ombre, Azelisassath, Abazen Winds, Ghemhamforash, Ars Hmu, Lunar Sorcery, Martröð… and the list goes on. While it is always guesswork what drove them to start yet another band, it seems that Ichors Glaive was aimed to deliver a Pagan and hypnotising, droning Black Metal sound, that combines the likes of Judas Iscariot and Darkthrone with the pulsating approach of Forest and Hate Forest and the Ukranian/Russian scene.
Shared between those influences is a raw base of the guitars that together with the drums combine into a rather uniform and militant whole. There is room for some (clean) strumming and the occasional break in pace, but riffs often repeat and the drums pace is mostly relentless. Melodic elements are certainly present but clearly are meant more to stay lurking underneath the surface rather than expose themselves too obviously. The resulting atmosphere is brooding and sinister, especially in a song like ‘Ablazen Reliquary, Autumnal Roar‘ where the pace is a bit more varied. To top it off, the vocals are twofold: more hoarse and roaring shrieks, and clean Pagan chanting. The latter is a fitting complement to the Pagan nature of the music that adds some diversity, but also in my opinion a pain point of the recording.
To put it plainly: I’m not a huge fan of the somewhat drunken sounding clean chanting. Now, they’re not that frequent on ‘Solstice of an Ancient God’ but can prominently be found in the opener ‘Adorned by the Fallen’ and the closing title track. In the latter case, when it’s accompanied by some calm strumming it’s a bit too much for me and takes away from the atmosphere it was meant to evoke. As a consequence it takes away from the overall enjoyability. It’s still a good recording, and the strength for me lies mostly in the hypnotising repetitiveness of the riffs and the pulsating drums. But comparing to the company found on Medieval Prophecy Records, undeniably I would place Ichors Glaive at quite some distance from excelling label mates such as Moenen of Xezbeth, Phlegeton’s Majesty, Regnum Tenebrarum and Effroi, to just name a few.
